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E. V. JOHNSON.

FIREPROOF TILE WALL.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 23. 1914.

1L WLT/QW Patented J une 24, 1919.

lateral pressures.

ERNEST V. JOHNSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FIRE-PROOF TILE WALL.

neonate.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 24, 1919.

Application filed April 23, 1914. Serial No. 833,84=9.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST V. Jonnson, a citizen of the United States, residlng in Chicago, in the count of Cook and State of Illinois, have invente anewand useful Improvement in Fireproof Tile Walls, of which the following is a specificatlon.

This invention relates to improvements in fire-proof tile walls.

Hitherto, great difficulty has, been expe; rienced in making walls for buildings which would be of sufficient lightness and yet fireproof and able to withstand transverse or Walls made of tile blocks have been more or less condemned on account of the fact that although they may be made light and able to withstand the necessary vertical pressure and strains, they have been unable to Withstand, sufficiently, transverse or lateral pressures and hence have not been able to satisfy underwriters requirements for a'fire-proof tile wall. This has been due mostly to the fact that it has been thought impossible to reinforce a tile wall with reinforcing rods or bars which would enable the walls to successfully withstand transverse pressure. The result has been in many instances that it was found necessary to" build the walls of concrete, which is relatively heavy and expensive and requires stronger supports.

One object of my invention is to provide a fire proof wall made of tile blocks so con structed and arranged that the wall may be reinforced with. bars or rods sufficiently for the walls to resist the lateral or transversepressures requlred of them.

Another object ofmy invention is to provide building blocks of tile which are light; which provide an air space; and which are so constructed and arranged that all the portions of the tiles including the sides, ends, and intermediate. webs, will all be under compression when the tiles are placed tier upon tier and the joints broken in the ordinary manner.

lhe invention furthermore consists in the improvements in the parts and devices and in the novel combinations of the parts and devices herein shown, described or claimed.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification. Figure 1 is a perspective view' of a portion of a wall built in accordance with my invention, the plaster being broken away in some parts to more clearly illustrate the construction. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sec tion of the wall taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a similar section taken on a different level and substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

In said drawing, the wall A is shown as formed of a. number of layers or tiers of tile, alternate layers of which are formed with tile blocks 10 and the other layersor tiers of channel-shaped tile block 11. Each tile 10, as shown most clearly in Fig. 2, cornprisessides 12, 12 corrugated or undercut, as shown, to more readily receive the plaster,

- ends 13, 13 which are recessed as shown at 142, a longitudinally arranged web 15 and a pair of transversely arranged webs 16, 16 separated by intervening spaces 17.

Each of the channel-shaped tile orblocks is provided with a lower horizontal portion 18 and upwardly extending webs 19 on the sides, thus making the channel. The lower portions 18 of alternate channel tiles are recessed or cut out as shown at 20 to an amount slightly more than half the length of the ghannel tile for thereas'on hereinafter speci- In building the wall, the tiles 10 are arranged end to end as shown in Fig. 2 and ,are bonded by means of cement or grouting as indicated at 21. As shown in the drawing, vertically extending reinforcing rods or bars 22 are placed in the cement or grouting between the ends of alternate tiles 10 and these rods are continued to the height of the wall being built. 0n top of each layer or tier or course formed by the tile 10, is placed wire netting as indicated at 32, which is used to prevent the horizontal layer of comentor grouting 23 from falling within the tile 10. After the layer of grouting 23 is in place, the channel tiles are placed in position, end to end, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 3 and those channel tiles which are provided with cut-out portions 20 are slipped over the vertically extending reinforcing rods 22 so that said rods are centered longitudinally with respect to said channel tiles. The channel tiles are next filled with grouting 2 1 and horizontally extending reinforcing rods or bars 25 are embed-ded in said g'routin which rods or bars extend the entire lenggi of the wall. The tops of the channels are covered with the grouting or cement in order to form a bond for the next succeeding layer or tier or course of tile 10 and the layers or tiers or courses are duplicated to form the necessary height of the wall. The sides of the wall are covered. with a coating of plaster 26 as is customary.

he channel tiles and tiles 10' are made of the same length so that when the tiers are placed one upon the other, the joints are broken in the usual manner to give the best effect, it being understood that grouting or cement is placed between the ends of the channel tiles as in the case of the tiles 10. The tiles 10 are so proportioned that if one tier of them is placed directly on, another tier and the joints broken in the usual manner, the end webs 13, 13 will be positioned in alinement with the intermediate webs 16, 16 of the tiles of the adjacent tier so that the end Webs and intermediate webs would always be under compression, thus adapting the tiles to withstand the greatest amount of vertical pressure. I

From the preceding description, it will be seen that the vertical reinforcing rods or bars 22 and the horizontal rods or bars 25, 25 form a net work which reinforces the wall in such a Way as to resist transverse or lateral pressures. It Will also be understood that although I have shown onl a slngle vertical rod between alternate ti cs 10 and two rods in each tier or layer or course of channel tile, that the number 'and arrangements of these rods and reinforcing bars may be varied either byincreasing or decreasing their number or changingtheir location in accordance withthe desired strength of the Wall and furthermore that the alternate arrangement of blocks 10 and channel tile 11 may be varied if desired. It will also be observed that in the arrangement which have provided, all the reinforcing rods are completely embedded in cement or grouting; the recessed ends of the vertically arranged hollow blocks 10 provide plenty of clearance for the vertically arranged reinforcing rods; and the slotted channel tiles serve to properly center the vertically arranged rods.

lthough I have herein shown and described what I now consider the preferred embodiment of'my improvements, yet it will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and all such changes and modifications are contemplated as come within the scope of the claim appended hereto.

I .claim In a hollow tile wall, the combination of a plurality of hollow tile arranged in courses and with the voids extending vertically and interspersed courses of hollow tile arranged with the voids extending horizontally, the individual tiles of said last mentioned courses being staggered with respect to the tiles of the first mentioned courses and recessed in from an end to register with the bonds between tile above and beneath said recessed tile and reinforcing rods extending vertically through said recesses and between the1 tile having the voids extending vertical i signed this 20th day of April, 1914, in the presence of two witnesses.

ERNEST V. JOHNSON. Witnesses:

Josnrn Harms,

H. M. MUNDAY. 

